Trashed: A Graphic Novel

John Backderf's previous graphic novel "My Friend Dahmer" was an international bestseller. If there's any justice in the world,"Trashed" will become one, too. A reworking and expansion of stories Derf first told as a webcomic, "Trashed" tells the story of a young man who takes on "the crap job of all crap jobs," working as a trash collector on a sanitation crew. If you've ever had to work a job where you had to take at least three showers when you got home to even BEGIN to get the stench off you, or even if you've just had one where you had to deal with a knuckleheaded work force and a pain-in-the-ass boss, you wll relate to this story. Derf's drawing technique gets better each time out, and his ability to tell an interesting story is as good as his work with his pencils and pens. "Trashed" is based on Derf's real-life experience. Although it's a novel, it feels real because it IS real. Buy a copy for yourself, and while you're at it, get one for that teenager or young adult who sits by themself in the corner at family gatherings because they think nobody understands them. They'll be glad you did.

I've been a fan of Derf's since first reading his much-missed The City strip in my local alternative weekly newspaper. I bought a copy of My Friend Dahmer awhile back and admired the way he told a story, even as creepy as it was. I watched Derf create Trashed on his Facebook page over the last couple of years. Watching him toil over this release gave me a bigger appreciation for the finished product. You might not think that a graphic novel about trash men would be all that riveting - and you'd be way wrong in that assumption. Using some real life experience (Derf himself was a garbage collector for a couple of years early on) and good research Derf tells a great story and also educated the reader on the crazy amount of garbage we all create each day. Very well done and highly recommended.

Trash MATTERS and Backderf does a good job of describing the history of garbage and the ecologically and socially toxic effects of our trash-spewing economy. However, the trash facts, woven throughout the story, weakened the relationships between the characters. I own Trashed, V1 and read the "Trashed" webcomic that this book evolved from. I miss the the raw, personal energy of the first volume and the looser, smuttier tone of the webcomic. The strengths of this book are in the brilliant dissection of small-town politics (cycles of power and power wielded behind the scenes) and the ever-improving art. I loved the engineering of Woody's comeuppance and I can't look at the MacGee "money shot" panel without laughing. It is a work of perverse beauty and comic genius and a great improvement over the first version in the webcomic. However, the bond between the two men on the back of the truck isn't as strong as it was in Trashed I and there aren't any moments that bring seasoned Service Department workers and short timers together, like the scene with Curtis, JB and Mike in the cemetary, in the webcomic. Backderf works iteratively, recycling and reworking material. Recycling can be good and Trashed, the book, shows immense artistic progress, but some of the sweet bits were lost in the process.

As I went through this I found the characters to be likeable and interesting and those personalities help me to not feel quite so guilty about being uninformed on a topic that confronts me throughout the day. If the attitude had been a guilt trip I wouldn't have made it through. But the issue is treated honestly as the author realizes its a complex issue to solve. If only we could convince our politicians to use some of our tax money to build those Scandinavian incinerators, but then we lose all of these jobs and they have the lobbying power to prevent that clean Scandinavian system from ever being built here. Reality is sometimes hard to swallow.

Although I found this book enjoyable, and liked the series of facts spread throughout this book on trash and the history of trash, I couldn't really engross myself in it 100%. I don't know if it's because the topic is that of "trash" and there are a few gory scenes in there, or if it's because of the storyline itself, but I simply could not immerse myself in this book. I will take the easy way out here and use another reviewer's excellent take on this book that reflects how I felt about it: "There's this thing I tried to express before in a review of a play, about dialog and how it works and doesn't work, and then I read this article about Mad Max: Fury Road that crystallized the whole thing for me. Here's what director George Miller says about dialog. At a simple level, you're not trying to use dialogue as exposition, you're using it as part of behaviour, and language itself is distorted. Dialog can be really grating as exposition and really effective as characterization. Dialog tells you a lot, not through the information contained in sentences, but the language used and the way things are said. I think this is especially true and noticeable in film, plays, and comics because they have the expository visual tools to carry some of the load as well, so when dialog is used as exposition, it's extra painful. I won't call Trashed lazy because it's not lazy, but when I write expository dialog, it's laziness. Always. It's a failure of imagination to show and demonstrate something in a better way." This may possibly be the core of the issue for me: the dialogue. The conversations seemed a bit contrived and not very realistic. You don't need to expand on every little thing you say, because it takes away from what it is you're saying leaving you feeling a little...well, annoyed. A very good book nonetheless, with great illustrations and graphics. Just needs a little more work in terms of characterization and story line.

A book that doesn't pull any punches, 'Trashed' draws inspiration from Backderf's brief stint as a bin man way back when. Interspersing unsettling factoids about America's trash between the day-to-day rigmarole faced by J.B. and his fellow village service workers, even those of us lower-totem types who don't necessarily work in 'service' can relate. Artistically, Backderf forgoes the 'organic robots' of 'My Friend Dahmer' for more laid-back rendering. Shadows are not as prevalent in this tome, and even then, are done as part of the 'bluewashes' that give the drawings their sole colour. Indeed, if 'Dahmer' was Derf Backderf's Palomar, 'Trashed' is his Regular Show- if Regular Show had forgone the surrealness for the more mundane. In conclusion, a book to make you laugh, and a book to make one think about the all-too-real impact they have on the world around them....

Ce livre en anglais explique très bien le problème des déchets et pourquoi nos systèmes de production et de consommation doivent être re-conçus de fond en comble.

Loved this book . Made me laugh so much . Nice art and just so well written . One of my favourite graphic novels EVER . And I have read a lot of em . Can’t wait to see what Derf has up his sleeve next .

Nulla da dire lui è un genio del fumetto! E' in grado di prendere una storia semplice e farla diventare epica. Assolutamente consigliato!

Love the art and good story. I learnt something too about trash